Primo believes in doing everything we can to protect the environment. Recycling is great, and we encourage you to recycle on all levels where you can. Being recyclable is part of being renewable. Renewable is a bigger concept. It's about asking the right questions when developing a product: Are these materials sustainable? Is there an earth-friendlier option? The biggest issue today is developing functional packaging for consumer products that use sustainable packaging from renewable resources or materials. Not using depleting, non-renewable resources like oil.
Primo had renewable in mind when we developed our earth-friendly bottle. We're saving valuable resources when we make bottles from natural plastics like Ingeotm, allowing petroleum to be used for other more important needs. Renewable materials also have more options for re-use, or "new life," then non-renewable materials.
How is Primo Renewable?
Primo's bottles have a renewable advantage throughout their lifecycle.
- They are made from Ingeotm natural plastic, derived from plants – not crude oil like most other plastic bottles.
- Ingeotm plastic is unique in that it offers consumers multiple options for the bottle to be renewed:
- It can be sorted and recycled using traditional mechanical recycling
- It can be chemically recycled
- It can be commercially composted
- It can be incinerated for energy recovery
Unfortunately, many consumers don't have access to any recycling of plastic or other materials, even the traditional method of mechanically recycling PET plastic bottles. We also recognize that not all consumers have access today to all the recycling options Primo bottles have and that the facilities that can execute some of those processes are limited. That's not unusual when you're on the leading edge of environmental progress.
Bioplastics Recycling Consortium
In June 2008, Primo helped form a consortium of leading waste management experts, industry stakeholders, NGO's, government, academia and brand builders. The mission was to work together to develop new long-term, effective and efficient recovery and recycling processes for bioplastics. We encourage consumers to take advantage of any recovery opportunity, every day. Call your local recovery company or municipality if you have any questions. To learn more, see our FAQs.
Manufacturing efficiencies: Using less energy, emitting less greenhouse gases
Manufacturing the Ingeo resin used in the Primo bottle requires 49% less fossil resources than a PET petroleum based bottle. Conventional PET bottles use limited and diminishing reserves of oil and natural gas as their materials source. In contrast, the material for Primo’s bottle is derived from annually renewable resource, like plants.
Carbon dioxide is believed to be a major contributor to global climate change. Ingeo emits less carbon dioxide because it is made from renewable resources, plants. Since carbon dioxide is removed from the air when plants are grown, Ingeo emits 75% less greenhouse gases to the atmosphere than a PET petroleum based bottle.
Want to see how we change plants into Primo bottles?
Click here to watch this amazing story.
